cheap stuff will get ya every time

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I'm in final assembly ogf a rather involved dart board box.
Inside there's lots of little cupboards with doors that hold various things.
I got the hinges at Lowes some time ago. They are the little 3/4" high 1/2" wide hinges they sell in the bright blue bubble pack. They are cheap.

I have already done a dry assembly before applying finish so all the screw holes areready to go and pre threadded.
Except the hinges are different one from another in small very annoying ways. I have one door that was perfect when pre assembles that not is out of whack by 1/16 easy. It won't close. Another required me to take a chisel and pare the rood a tad to get it to fit on the hinge.
The people that Lowes bought 'em from didn't even punch the holes in the same places.

[Todd Crawford]

While my most recent story has nothing to do with woodwork but rather some decorative things my wife asked me to hang on the wall. There were 3 of them and they each had two hangers on the back, one on each end so each "thingy" required two hangers and she wanted them all level across one wall. I laid out my level line and marked where all of the hangers should go based on measuring one of the "thingies". When I went to hang them all, found out there was a LOT of variation in the measurements. Caused a lot of frustration when a simple 10 minute job turns into an hour!!!

[Dwain Lambrigger]

Todd,

Just remember that you shouldn't be frustrated longer than it took to complete the job. One way or another, when the toolbox shuts, it's over and done with...

...unless you are on the way to the BORG for more stuff.

[Dale Lesak]

That's when a nickle job turns into a $1.50 project.

[Todd Crawford]

True, I'm over it now, they are hung and look great. She's happy and now thinks it takes an hour to hang three "thingies" so next time when I do it in 15 minutes I'll look like a hero! :)

[Robert Parrish]

Buy cheap buy twice!!

[glenn bradley]

Thank you Cliff. Posts like yours saved me from a similar fate on a wall cabinet I had spent about 100 hours on. Learning from others (and I'm one of them too) who selflessly post their "ooops" moments made me pony-up for quality hinges and they worked great.

[John Schreiber]

Buy cheap buy twice!!
Buy cheap and buy carefully and you still have money in the bank.

Not arguing, but no single strategy always works.

[Peter Quinn]

Yup, I steer clear of dirt cheap poorly made hardware like the plague. The screw hole thing is a bugger, that screams of poor quality stamped garbage. I have found that even better made hardware can have some variation, so when I have to take it off for finishing, I label the blind spot behind the hardware, label the hardware in a corresponding manner with blue tape, and make sure the hardware goes back into the spot it was originally fitted to.

[Mike Henderson]

That's actually a feature - the hinges are made to appear "hand made". Small variations and imperfections are put into each hinge just as if they were made individually by a craftsman in a small shop. And given the labor rates in China, maybe they were.:)

Mike

[Disclaimer: This post is made tongue in cheek - for anyone who would take it seriously.]

[glenn bradley]

Buy cheap and buy carefully and you still have money in the bank.

Not arguing, but no single strategy always works.

John speaks true but, there's inexpensive, on clearance, two for one, etc. And then there's cheap :eek:. I often pick up hardware or other items on sale or on clearance even if I don't need them right away. I do limit my purchases to things that I will use (mostly :rolleyes:). A dozen of 'something' regularly priced the same as one 'good' one is a pretty good indicator of the type of "cheap" I mean ;)